My name is Dave Stancliff. Walk down the road of life with me each day. You'll find news and my views. I'm a Vietnam Veteran, father to three sons, proud grandfather 5 times over, an independent thinker, and a former newspaper publisher and editor.

Friday, August 30, 2013

I’m taking a blog break because I’m moving to Southern Oregon. I will report back on September 4th, and let you know how things went.

I hate moving, but there comes a time when we need to. As for California…I’m not going to miss living in the #1 worst state for retirees due to excessive taxes! You get taxed for farting in California.

So, it’s on to Oregon and the adventures that this move will surely bring. At 62, I’m a little long-in-the-tooth for all the lifting involved, but I’ll be damn if I’m going to pay some professional movers! Two of my sons will handle the heavy stuff.

A few quick observations:

File the next story under the “I’ll believe it when I see it” department:

“The Justice Department will not sue to prevent the states of Washington and Colorado from permitting recreational marijuana use for adults.

Officials said that Attorney General Eric Holder called the governors of both states on Thursday to inform them that federal authorities won’t pre-empt their state laws permitting recreational use of the drug, which voters approved last year via ballot initiatives.

Holder told the two governors that the Justice Department will use a “trust but verify” policy, saying the federal government won’t step in to prevent the implementation of the marijuana laws if the states develop a sound, workable regulatory structure.”Story here

If this turns out to be true, California needs to get some long-awaited respect for their vote on Medical Marijuana. The feds have trampled on California voters for years now with blatant disregard for their decision to legalize it for medicinal use.

I’m taking bets on this next story. What do you want to bet this Wall Street bigwig beats this rape rap?

A Goldman Sachs Group managing director has been indicted by a grand jury on charges of raping a 20-year-old woman during a party last week at a house he rented in the up-market Hamptons area of Long Island, according to court filings.

Jason Lee, 37, was indicted on Wednesday on one felony charge of first-degree rape and two misdemeanor charges of assault and sexual misconduct, according to the filings.

Police said last week that Lee was arrested on Aug. 21 in East Hampton, New York, after police, responding to a complaint about a stolen car, found the unnamed woman, who alleged she had been sexually assaulted. Lee was released on $20,000 bail.

This last story is kinda scary when you think about it:

Addicted to Facebook fame? Blame your brain's nucleus accumbens

It only makes sense: Neuroscientists see a link between your drive to build a better reputation and the intensity of your Facebook usage. They say the two activities stimulate a reward center in the brain, known as the nucleus accumbens, in a similar way.

That little knot of neurons also plays a part in how good you feel about financial gain — but in a series of experiments, researchers in Germany found that Facebook usage seems more closely related to a boost in reputation than a boost in the bank account.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Mad scientists worldwide are rejoicing! Science fiction writers are smiling smugly and saying “I told you it was just a matter of time.” What is everyone referring to?

Drum roll ….

Researchers have learned how to grow human brains out of a petri dish! The pea-sized brains (cloned from Republicans) are probably best suited for tiny insect implants, but brains nevertheless! I’m stunned, but probably shouldn’t be. It was inevitable.

When I first heard about stem cells, I quickly grasped they spelled trouble. It was just a matter of time as researchers cloned everything from goats to human body parts. There’s even been talk about cloning a mammoth found perfectly preserved in the frozen Siberian tundra.

The brain, being the most difficult to reproduce, was naturally the last frontier. Are these “minibrains” capable of doing anything? Hint, they were cloned from GOP DNA so don’t expect much from them!

Here’s a snippet:

“The first complete living model of the developing human brain has been created in a lab dish. Researchers grew human stem cells in an environment that encouraged them to form pea-size gobs of brain tissue, which developed into distinct brain tissues, including a cerebral cortex and retina.

The minibrains were used to model microcephaly, a human genetic disorder in which brain size is dramatically reduced.” Story here

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

The United States' largest rocket launched a spy satellite on a hush-hush mission today. An unmanned Delta 4-Heavy rocket lifted off the pad at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base at 2:03 p.m. ET (11:03 p.m. PT) Wednesday, carrying a classified payload into a polar orbit for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.

Two current stories of hackers demonstrate how they can touch anyone in the world when they feel like it. It can be serious stuff, or just pranks.

But, hacking is hacking, and it sucks to be hacked!

This time a group known as the Syrian Electronic Army was the culprit. The New York Times website, nytimes.com, was hacked Tuesday, taking the the site down for a second time in two weeks.

Perhaps it was just coincidence, but the attack on one of the nation's major media organizations came as the United States weighs penalizing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his military for using poison gas on his countrymen.

Marc and Lauren Gilbert were terrified when they heard a strange voice calling out to their 2-year-old daughter Allyson, through a baby monitor in her room. The Texas family learned the hard way that almost anything connected to the Internet can get hacked.

A voice coming through a baby monitor, that was hooked up to the home's wireless Internet system, appeared to be operating on its own. CNN reports that the hacker used the device to curse and say sexually explicit things to the sleeping girl - calling her by name and telling her to wake up.

Gilbert says the hacker was able to take control of the camera and see his daughter's name on the wall. In a panic, he pulled the plug on the device. The girl was not disturbed by the hacker's calls because she was born deaf, having to depend on a cochlear implant to hear.

Parents can protect their homes by setting a strong password. Experts recommends using Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) to set up a password because it uses better encryption standards and is very difficult to crack, especially combined with a good password.

This kind of thing may go unreported, but I’ve heard of a phenomenon called "wardriving" -- where people drive around looking for homes with weak wireless security. When they find one, they hack into whatever is easiest.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Is he a saint or a showman? Or, is it possible that Edward Snowden is a combination of the two? I’m having a hard time deciding. Being somewhat of a skeptical sort, I always question a person’s motives for doing things – good, or bad.

Are we all witnessing the channeling of Patrick Henry, via Snowden? “Give me Liberty or Death?” Is it possible Edward Snowden cares so little for his personal safety that he would expose NSA spying methods – and almost Jesus-like - offer up his life as a sacrifice for his fellow Americans?

"I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things," Snowden told The Guardian. "I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under."

As we've seen, the NSA's story on "abuses" keeps changing. First there were no abuses at all, then there were a whole lot of abuses (but all unintentional) and now we know that there also were a bunch of intentional abuses.

On screen is Matt Damon, who appears to be talking to a journalist of foreign provenance.

He is being asked what he thinks of Edward Snowden. Astonishingly for someone who has been Jason Bourne and knows the danger of such things, he is answering the question.

"I haven't read everything that he's leaked," he admits. Who has? Even the government doesn't know what Snowden secreted on his gadgets.

"Snowden is a hero because he realized that our very humanity was being compromised by the blind implementation of machines in the name of making us safe," writes Douglas Rushkkoff of CNN.

"Unlike those around him, who were too absorbed in their task to reflect on their actions and pause in their pursuit of digital omniscience, Snowden allowed himself to be 'disturbed' by what he was doing."

Is that a fact? I wish I knew more about Snowden’s personal life. He almost seems to be too good to be true. He’s making Americans ashamed of themselves for not demanding more accountability from our government.

Does one’s peace of mind, one’s sense of duty, and one’s love of country motivate them so much they’re willing to give up a normal life and to be a fugitive? It’s been a long time since I’ve seen anyone like that. I might even have to check the history books. Or, the Bible!

The reality is this little dash for life is far from life-affirming, and possibly a unique way to depart the planet. For those individuals with suicide on their mind, this will be more dramatic than jumping off a bridge. Of course one has to pay for the privilege.

From what I’ve read, not that many people in Spain have been killed over the centuries while running from those pissed-off bulls! But this is America folks! Whatever significance it held for the Spaniards is one thing, but for Americans it’s just another chance to make asses out of ourselves! We’ll probably have more casualties than Spain has ever had during the first year of these bull runs.

My suggestion is we need to focus more on this idea of the “running of the bulls” and make it a more significant event by enacting our own set of four rules for the race:

One, only politicians running for office will run from the bulls. It’ll be mandatory in every election from the state level to the national level! That will help us weed out the whimps in these campaigns.

Two, all political parties will take part. No exceptions.

Three, all runoff-elections will be decided by double the amount of bulls chasing the contestants.

Four, winners simply have to be the first to cross the finish line…alive and not impaled on a bull’s horns!

Thank you for stopping by ladies and gentleman. The next running of the politicians will be…

The very real Museum of Bad Art, or MOBA, is looking for art so bad it's good. The Massachusetts museum proudly showcases the work in three galleries, one in the basement of a community theater in Somerville and two in nearby Brookline.

Founded in 1994, the volunteer-run museum has since received attention from around the world, and critics from the New York Times to Harvard scholars have expounded on its influence. MOBA has even released two books,"Museum of Bad Art: Art Too Bad to Be Ignored" and "Museum of Bad Art: Masterworks."

The origins of the museum lie in the painting "Lucy In the Field With Flowers (shown here)," which antiques dealer Scott Wilson found in a pile of trash in 1994. (Story and video tour here)